₹5,000 crore bank fraud: Gujarat-based Sandesara may have fled to Nigeria; report

Owner and director of Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech Nitin Sandesara, who is wanted in an alleged ₹5,000 crore bank fraud case, was reported to have been taken into custody last month in Dubai. Now, according to a report published in the Times of India on Monday, September 24, quoting “top sources” in the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, Sandesara may have fled to Nigeria along with his family.

The new development, if confirmed, would come as a blow to the CBI and the ED as India does not have an extradition treaty with Nigeria.

An officer on the basis on anonymity told ToI that Sandesara was never detained in Dubai. “There were reports that Nitin Sandesara was detained by UAE authorities in Dubai in the second week of August. It was incorrect information. He was never detained in Dubai. He and other family members probably left for Nigeria much before that,” ToI quoted the officer as saying.

According to the article, the CBI and ED had earlier booked Sterling Biotech’s directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former director Andhra Bank Anup Garg and other unidentified persons for a fraud with banks to the tune of ₹5,000 crore. It was alleged that the Sterling Biotech had taken a loan of ₹5,000 crore from a consortium of banks led by Andhra Bank.

ED has arrested Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, former Andhra Bank director Anup Garg and Sterling Biotech Ltd director Rajbhushan Dixit in connection with the case, said the article. It added that Sandesara and his family members may have set up more than 300 shell companies in India and abroad. These shell firms, allegedly controlled by Sandesara through dummy directors, may have been used to launder money.

Incidentally, senior journalist Swati Chaturvedi tweeted the ToI article saying, “Case being handled in CBI by Modi favourite Rakesh Asthana special director. How many more “assisted escapes” to scamster billionaires during Modi sarkar?”